Garage Door Repair Tips & Tricks

Your garage is supposed to prevent trouble by keeping your car safe from the elements (and from thieves), but sometimes garages have problems of their own. Garage doors won't open, refuse to lock or age and warp. Here's how to solve garage door dilemmas.

8:189 || ON A ROLL:

The power to your garage is out with the door shut, and you need to get your car out or you'll have to take a bus.THE QUICK FIX

You'll notice a cord--usually with a red handle--dangling down from the guide track that the opener uses to open and close the door. This is the manual override. Once pulled, it allows you to open and close the door with your own power in the form a little elbow grease.

8:191 || ROLLUP DILEMMA:

That sagging garage door is getting harder and harder to open.THE QUICK FIX

Garage doors, especially older, wooden models, are as susceptible to the ravages of time and gravity as the rest of us. If your aging doors are a little saggy, square them up with the tension rods positioned on the back of the door. The rods are placed diagonally from top to bottom corners and can be tightened at a turnbuckle to straighten out the door--do a little at time to allow the door to adjust to the change. If your door isn't already equipped with tension rods, you can buy them at home centers.

8:192 || DOOR LINES:

Your dream car is parked in out of the elements, but it's not secure because the garage door won't lock.THE QUICK FIX

Most garage doors have two horizontal bars that move out from the center of the door into slots along the side of the door in the door track, effectively locking the door in place. Over time, these bars can shift slightly out of position so that they are no longer correctly aligned with the locking slots. To realign the bars, unscrew the guide brackets on the edges of the door so that they are loose enough to move, and then reposition them so that they smoothly guide the locking bars into the locking slots. Lubricate the lock mechanism with machine oil and you're done.

8:193 || BLACK BLOT:

After working on the car, you find a big oil stain on the driveway.THE QUICK FIX

Pulverize a scrap piece of drywall with a hammer (any new home construction site will have dumpsters full of waste pieces of drywall). Crumble the pulverized drywall with your hands and sprinkle on the stain. Leave it overnight, and rinse off in the morning. Reapply and brush in with a bristle broom in cases of stubborn stains.

GO WITH THE PRO

Barrier ConcernsAlthough small stains and cracks can usually be fixed with store-bought products and a little elbow grease, bigger troubles in your home's masonry walls call for more expertise. Bring in a mason or structural professional when: